THE
SOUTH AFRICAN Tourism Minister Mr Marthinus van Schalkwyk, accompanied
by Nigeria’s Tourism, Culture and National Orientation Minister, Chief
Edem Duke, today
officially opened the very first South African Tourism marketing office
on the African continent in Lagos, Nigeria.
Addressing
the West African travel trade and guests in attendance, Minister Van
Schalkwyk said that South African Tourism’s new home in Lagos serves to
confirm South
Africa’s support for increased economic cooperation between the
southern
African and western African regions.
“As
a nation, we see the special and longstanding relationship between
Nigeria and South Africa as pivotal towards maintaining an Africa that
is economically vibrant
and resilient and an Africa that grows through partnerships between
nations,” said Minister van Schalkwyk.
“Key
to creating economic vibrancy and resilience is working together to
develop industries that have the potential to contribute meaningfully to
our GDPs and to
job creation on the continent. Tourism is certainly one such industry.
Investing in our tourism network on the continent is not only indicative
of our commitment to African co-operation, but it also makes good
business sense,”Minister van Schalkwyk continued.
“We’ve
experienced positive growth figures out of West Africa; a total of
73,282 Nigerian tourists visited South Africa last year marking a 13.8%
increase from 2011.
At the end of June 2013, Nigerian tourist
arrivals had continued to grow on a strong trajectory with 15.9% during the first six months of this year.
“Likewise,
tourist arrivals from Ghana to South Africa grew by 23.8% in 2012, when
South Africa welcomed 22,953 Ghanaian tourists. Up to end June 2013,
arrivals
from Ghana were growing at 27.3%, to 13, 663 tourist arrivals for the
six-month period. The steady growth in both markets makes this region
very valuable to us,” Minister van Schalkwyk said.
The
Nigeria office opening comes on the heels of South African Tourism
having officially extended an invitation to the rest of Africa to
showcase the continent by
exhibiting at
the annual Tourism INDABA held in Durban in May every year. South
African Tourism has also invited more than 500 hosted buyers to INDABA
2014; offering exhibitors
the opportunity to promote their destination at the heart of Africa’s
biggest, most established and best-attended travel trade exhibition.
In addition, an announcement at the end of last year, of collaboration between INDABA and the bespoke
We Are Africa
tradeshow (that takes place days before INDABA) exponentially increases
the exposure to top-quality buyers for exhibitors at both travel trade
shows.
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